Friday, April 14, 2006

WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?

"But the real beauty of this film is that the brilliant minds interviewed throughout (a who's-who of quantum physicists, biologists, neurologists and modern day mystics) are willing to talk about how this incredibly scientific quantum information affects our daily lives, and, if you haven't figured it out already, our spirituality. And hey, if you're a little slow on the pickup, all you really have to do is watch Amanda (Marlee Matlin) stumble through the rabbit hole into some odd environments (like our brains, where electrical storms between synapses are the norm) to see how reality works."

"This film, which is probably heading to a nearby art house cinema, is a low-budget docudrama which, as far as I could tell, is best described by the term "annoying," although "boring" and "pretentious psychobabble" will work as well.""Christians know the answer the film poses. The film, on the other hand, is just plain clueless.No sex or violence, but most teenagers and adults will be bored."

But the "what the bleep" meme is growing, so I decided I should see it for myself. Now I've seen it I can confirm that it does distort quantum physics to support a mystical viewpoint. But it is much more than that. Much worse. Hilariously so, in fact.

"Now, people are entitled to believe whatever they want, and if they want to meditate for world peace and inner strength, that's great. But caching their spiritual beliefs behind a scientific veneer is unnecessary, and knowing there's some hidden agenda behind all their happy talk is just creepy. At a basic level, you might get something out of the film's gloss of physics and physiology, but you'd surely learn more from any episode of "Nova." You might be convinced that the power of positive thinking and the mind-body connection can help you in life, but you'd surely be better served by reading some combination of psychology, Alan Watts and halfway decent self-help literature. By comparison, this movie's unmade connections between gee-whiz science clichיs and new-age spiritual hokum will only leave you thinking, why the bleep should I care?"

Finally for the really adventurous, an independent website with the reviews

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An introduction to research techniques, planning, execution, analyses, and presentation of information. Reading and writing skills and interpretation of data. Preparation of scientific research for publication. This part of the module counts 10 credits